FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT PLEBES - PAGE 3

On a hazy morning earlier this week, a 108-foot Navy ship pulled out into the Severn River with a group of jittery teen-agers at the controls. Marco N. Nelson, 18, whose prior fleet experience ran to inner-tubing on a lake in Arizona, was the vessel's conning officer - its chief lookout. He gazed starboard and saw that his ship, YP 695, was still a tad too close to the sea wall. "Left, 5 degrees rudder!" he hollered from the bridge wing. "Left, 5 degrees rudder, aye!" shouted Hunter E. Parden, the skinny adolescent at the helm.

A pair of plebes showed last night that, despite its current troubles, the future of Navy's basketball team looks bright. The present, however, remains gray and dreary. American defeated Navy, 64-61, at Alumni Hall, giving the Eagles a season sweep over the Mids for the second year in a row. Senior guard Steven Miles scored 27 points to lead American, helping the Eagles overcome an excellent night by Navy freshman David Hooper, who scored 24 points, the most by a plebe since Michael Heary had 31 against Army in 1995.

More women were inducted into the Naval Academy's Class of 2010 Wednesday than in any previous class in the school's 161-year history. The 273 women also make up 22 percent of the 1,218 students who entered the academy, the highest percentage in school history and second among service academies only to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, where women make up 28 percent of the student body. "In 1980, we admitted about 80 and in 1990, we did 136, and [now] we will have some 270," Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt, the academy superintendent, said Tuesday.

More women were inducted into the Naval Academy's Class of 2010 Wednesday than in any previous class in the school's 161-year history. The 273 women also make up 22 percent of the 1,218 students who entered the academy, the highest percentage in school history and second among service academies only to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, where women make up 28 percent of the student body. "In 1980, we admitted about 80 and in 1990, we did 136, and tomorrow, on induction day, we will have some 270," Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt, the academy superintendent, said Tuesday.

By Childs Walker and Childs Walker,childs.walker@baltsun.com | August 8, 2009

Kathryn Boganowski and her daughter, Grace, made a pact six weeks ago when it was time to say goodbye: no tears. The truth was, both felt nervous and scared about Grace Boganowski's matriculation from Towson High School to plebe summer at the U.S. Naval Academy. But aside from some quivering of the lips, they refused to break down in front of one another that July morning. On Friday, Boganowski stood on her tip-toes, probing a long line of midshipmen - each ramrod straight and clad in pristine white - for any sign of her girl.

There were no crying parents and bright-eyed teens lined up outside the Naval Academy sports arena at dawn yesterday. No baggy jeans or care packages from home. No long-haired kids learning how to salute. This was a different breed of soon-to-be midshipmen who arrived at the academy a day before 900 recent high school graduates charge through with their parents in tow today. These young men and women come from the fleet, from the Navy and Marine enlisted ranks - older, calmer and seasoned, in many cases, by years of military experience.

Rule No. 1 of Induction Day at the U.S. Naval Academy: Do not speak unless spoken to. Rule No. 2: If you are spoken to, there are only two possible responses: Sir, yes sir! or Ma'am, yes ma'am! It might sound simple, but for many of the 1,200 freshmen - or plebes - who arrived at the academy yesterday morning for six weeks of physical and mental training, the first, and most important, order of the day proved a challenge. "Ma'am, yes ma'am!" one plebe stammered to a male upperclassman.

ANNAPOLIS -- Nimitz, Rickover, Farragut. The esteemed dead are alive on the campus of the U.S. Naval Academy. The buildings, playing fields, 75 monuments, benches, even trees honor Naval heroes and distinguished classes of midshipmen. Damn the torpedoes. I have not yet begun to fight. Don't give up the ship.Plebes, the freshmen of the Brigade, also face the CORE VALUES OF THE U.S. NAVAL ACADEMY: HONOR, COURAGE AND COMMITMENT. Posted in huge letters on classroom walls, the words bore into plebes.

The 1,200 long-haired, scruffy-looking teen-agers dropped off at the Naval Academy gates six weeks ago were long gone yesterday as the academy's freshman class marched out in formation before more than a thousand emotional parents craning their necks to find their children. It has been a grueling six weeks for most of them. Each day begins with a 5 a.m. jog to the beat of a drill sergeant and ends with the memorization of arcane facts late into the night - all part of the process meant to indoctrinate them in the ways of the academy.